Planet Thought to Have Been Engulfed by Sun Still Exists, Astronomers Find

This artist's rendering provided by NASA and JPL-Caltech shows the Juno spacecraft above the planet Jupiter. Five years after its launch from Earth, Juno is scheduled to go into orbit around the gas giant on Monday, July 4, 2016. NASA/JPL-Caltech via AP

An international team of astronomers from the University of Sydney, Australia, and the University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy have discovered that a planet that was thought to have long ago disappeared actually still exists.

Using two Maunakea Observatories on Hawaii Island—W. M. Keck Observatory and Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT)—the team of researchers, led by Marc Hon, a NASA Hubble Fellow at the University, found the Jupiter-like planet 8 UMi b, nicknamed Hala after the highest mountain in South Korea, is still very much alive.